Dear Parishioners of our Beloved St. Paul:Praised be Jesus Christ and Mary His Most Holy Mother! It has been our grace and privilege to celebrate once more the wondrous and grace-filled Feast of Christmas. At Christmas there are no teachers, we are all students once again learning the lessons of firm faith, sure hope and ardent charity. No wonder why the great Doctor of the Church and mystic St. John of the Cross, normally so serious and somewhat severe, on Christmas would take the Holy Infant from the manger and dance for joy! Christ is born for us, Come let us adore Him.May I once again convey my own sincere best wishes to you and your families on this Feast of Our Lord’s Nativity. And may I also express my sincere gratitude to you for all your generosity to both St. Paul’s and to me not only at Christmas but all throughout the year. May God bless and reward you! I am truly a most blessed priest to be the pastor of this wonderful parish. Since this is the last Sunday of the Calendar Year 2014 I would like to wish each of you a very Blessed and Happy New Year and assure you of my prayers each day and daily remembrance at the altar of God. For our meditation today I would like us all to turn to this New Year of Grace 2015.The ancient Romans had a special god among their many gods. This god was the god of the gates and doorways. He had a face which looked forward and one which looked backward because, as we know, gates and doors both open and close. The ancient Romans called this god Janus. Our English word January comes from the name of this god, because January both closes one year and opens another. Our English word janitor is also derived from the name of this god, because a janitor opens and closes the gates and usually wears many keys to remind us of this function.Our Blessed Mother is called Janua Caeli, the Gate of Heaven. She closes the Old Testament and opens the New Testament. She is the last of the daughters of Israel and the Mother of the Church. (Some of you may know the beautiful Church on 101st Avenue in Ozone Park which is called St. Mary Gate of Heaven; as a 13 year old acolyte my father, who died 22 years ago, served the Mass of Dedication of the then-new Church of Gate of Heaven in 1926. It was dedicated and blessed by Archbishop Molloy. My father often told me that he had the whole day off from school, so solemn and long was the dedication of the Church.). And so we go to our Blessed Mother at the beginning of this New Year of Grace 2015. I can say with full assurance that this year will be for us all the best of years. I write this not because I can see the future, but because I am certain of one thing: that everything that happens to us this year, whether it be good as the world judges or ill as the world judges, will be God’s will for us. And as the poet Dante reminds us, In His Will is our peace! Our own father and patron St. Paul reminds us that for those who love God all things work unto the good.

This is the time when we usually will make New Year’s resolutions. May I suggest a few:

1.Attend Mass on every Sunday and Holyday of Obligation2. Confess our sins once each month3. Pray the Holy Rosary daily4. Invoke the assistance of St. Joseph each day5. Pray daily to Our Guardian Angel to guide and protect us6. Practice one act of self-denial each day7. Practice one act of mercy each day.8. Begin and end each day by signing ourselves with the sign of the Cross

May I once again wish each of you all the blessings of God in this New Year and assure you of my gratitude and prayers. Please pray for me.

Dear Parishioners of our Beloved St. Paul:Praised be Jesus Christ and Mary His Most Holy Mother! On this Sunday before the Feast of Our Lord’s Holy Nativity we come to the Fourth Sunday in Advent. This grace-filled season, now coming to a close, has been a time when the darkness has increased around us, but in which we have held fast to that True Light of the World, a Light which no darkness will ever extinguish. And now our hope is fulfilled for Our Lord is with us and even in nature we see today the return of the sun. From this day forward the days will grow brighter and longer.For our meditation of today I would like to point to our Beloved Father and lord, St. Joseph. Before time had begun, God chose St. Joseph to be the Guardian of the Redeemer. It was to St. Joseph that God committed the safety of His Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. And although St. Joseph was not physically the father of Our Lord who was born of the Ever-Virgin Mary, nonetheless he was a father to him in every way but the physical. The way Our Lord spoke, the way He would plane the wood, the way He made a cupboard, all reflected St. Joseph’s influence.It was St. Joseph who brought Our Lady to Bethlehem in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies that the Messiah would be born there. Not one word of St. Joseph’s has been recorded, but we know that just as He protected the Holy Family, so will He protect us. He is our intercessor in all things both supernatural and natural.At this Holy Time, then, may I wish you a very Holy, Happy, Blessed, and Merry Christmas. This is my second Christmas at St. Paul’s and therefore a very happy one. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to all of you for receiving me so warmly and with so much affection and kindness. May God reward you for all your goodness both to me and to St. Paul’s.Please be sure to save the Christmas schedule so that we may all make our Christmas confession. You will notice there are many hours for confession and it is my fond hope that very many will confess so that we may greet the Christ Child in humility and love. Please consult the bulletin for the times of the Christmas Masses. We are very grateful to a family of our parish who have offered for God’s glory and for the uplifting of our souls orchestral music for the 5.30PM Mass on Christmas Eve. It has long been a custom at St. Paul’s that on Christmas Eve there would be orchestral music. We are very grateful for this kind and generous gift and there will be a string quartet at the 5.30PM Mass. Our newly formed choir will sing at the Midnight Mass. They will sing the traditional Gregorian chant that is appointed for Midnight Mass.The 4.00PM Mass on Christmas Eve is usually the most crowded.If one is able to do so, one may consider attending one of the other Masses.At all the Christmas Masses at St. Paul the reading for the Midnight mass will be used. If there are visiting students from religion programs in other parishes who need their Mass requirement signed, please ask one of the ushers to do so.At St. Paul there is no such requirement, and Christmas day is most busy with our one priest greeting the parishioners and wishing them a Blessed Christmas.May we all receive Our Lord on Christmas with the purity, humility, the love and devotion with which His most Holy Mother received Him, with the spirit and the fervor of the saints.For that is precisely why Our Lord came to this earth as an infant, not to judge and condemn, but to love and be loved. He has come to earth so that we may go to heaven. And He calls each and every one of us to be saints. Now is the fullness of time and let us embrace the Holy Infant and hold Him so dearly. May He never depart from us.

Dear Parishioners of our Beloved St. Paul:Praised be Jesus Christ and Mary His Most Holy Mother! We come today to the Third Sunday in Advent- Gaudete Sunday meaning the Sunday of Rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord, always, again I say Rejoice! Thus did our Father and Patron St. Paul write in his Epistle to Philemon. And we, too, follow his command as we rejoice today because our salvation is so near.Immediately on this Sunday we notice that the priest has put away the somber violet for just one day and wears instead the lighter color rose. The candle of the Advent wreath is also rose. It dramatically reminds us that the Lord is near and in merely ten days we will see His glory as we kneel once more at the manger and behold the Light of the World, a light which no darkness will ever extinguish. Even nature itself will assist us, as we see at Christmas time the light return unconquered as the days begin to get brighter and longer.What a wonderful time then to contemplate the wondrous light that Our Blessed Mother brought to the very center of the New World on December 12, 1531.There once was a civilization that lived in a world apart. To their north was a great desert which no one had ever crossed. To their south was an enormous and endless jungle through which no one ever emerged. To their east and west lay the vast expanse of the Ocean Sea. These people were the Aztecs who inhabited the modern nation of Mexico but they called themselves the Mexica. Perhaps because they were so isolated, the evil one enslaved them and the ancient enemy of our race, the prince of darkness and the father of lies (we never use capitals when writing of the devil) was openly worshipped. And he demanded what he always demands, human sacrifice. Ancient Mexico had become a river of human blood. In 1488 when the Temple of the Sun was dedicated, over 20,000 men were offered in sacrifice in three days’ time. But amidst the horror of their surroundings the people prayed that a River of Light would flow into their darkness. Their own prophets had foretold that one day the Mother of the True God would come to their rescue and stop the human sacrifice.Although the Spanish had conquered the Aztec Empire by 1521 (having first arrived in Mexico in 1519), only the Immaculate One would conquer their hearts and souls. On December 9, 1531 (the day of the winter solstice because the Gregorian calendar had not yet been inaugurated) the Light burst into their darkness. Our Lady appeared on the Tepeyac hill to Juan Diego and asked that a Church be built on that very spot where, as she said, I will demonstrate, manifest, and make known my love and mercy for all who live united in these lands. In the course of four days Our Lady appeared five times to Juan Diego and on Monday, December 12, 1531, she revealed herself as the Virgin of Guadalupe (a name which means River of Light). On that day her miraculous image formed on the tilma of Juan Diego and it is enshrined in the great Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It is a continuous miracle because it is an image not made by human hands but given to us by God Himself. In merely 10 years (from 1531 to 1541) twelve million of the Aztecs were baptized through Our Lady of Guadalupe.May the Holy Virgin enlighten our darkness and bring us to the true Light of the World. For this weekend please visit the two shrines in the Church and pray before the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe (La Guadalupana) and St. Juan Diego. They will be in the Church on Saturday and SundayPlease be sure to save the Christmas schedule so that we may all make our Christmas confession. You will notice there are many hours for confession and it is my fond hope that very many will confess so that we may greet the Christ Child in humility and love.And finally, next Sunday (December 21st) we as a parish will observe the seventh anniversary of the going home to God of our beloved fourth Pastor, Monsignor Mario C. Costa. Unlike so many of you, I did not have the grace and joy to have known Monsignor Costa in this world; I hope that I will meet him in eternity. But in many ways I feel a deep friendship with him and sense his presence with this parish which he loved so well. So many lovingly speak of him that I know he was a priest after Our Lord’s own Heart. There can be no greater joy for a priest to love and be loved by his people, and that is certainly the case with Monsignor Costa. Holy Mass will be offered for the repose of his soul on Sunday he 21st at 11.00AM. How pleased I am that this good priest has been honored by having the lower hall named for him. Let us all say a prayer for Monsignor Costa, and, perhaps, in your goodness and generosity, you will remember also to say a prayer for me who am so in need of your prayers and the Good God’s mercy.